According to a 2025 survey, the average wait time for a medical appointment in large metropolitan areas in the United States was 31 days. That’s up from 26 days in 2022, and up from 21 days when the survey was first conducted in 2004. Wait times in US healthcare is the topic of this week’s Healthcare Triage. You live in the United States. You have health insurance. You figured out where to find a list of doctors your insurance is willing to pay for. You call one to make an appointment. You’re feeling responsible, you’re being proactive, you’re like “look at me, engaging in preventive care,” and then they say: Great! We can see you…in six weeks.” And you’re like, cool, cool, I will simply remain alive and unchanged until then. I guess if we didn’t have a shortage of medical providers I’d be able to get in sooner…right? That’s a really common explanation, and it’s not wrong. But it’s also not the whole story, not even close. This limited series is produced in partnership with AcademyHealth, and aims to address the complicated pain points in the American healthcare system. Special thanks to Lauren Adams, Tess Bernhard, and the AcademyHealth comms team for working with us to develop and produce this series. Be sure to check out our podcast! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkfBg8ML-gInFaYyYhKLBp2u7h5IojTw4 Other Healthcare Triage Links: 1. Support the channel on Patreon: http://vid.io/xqXr 2. Check out our Facebook page: http://goo.gl/LnOq5z 3. We still have merchandise available at http://www.hctmerch.com 4. Aaron's book "The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully" is available wherever books are sold, such as Amazon: http://amzn.to/2hGvhKw Credits: Aaron Carroll -- Writer Tiffany Doherty -- Writer and Script Editor John Green -- Executive Producer Stan Muller -- Director, Producer Mark Olsen – Art Director, Producer